The DVD rental choice has boiled down to Blockbuster vs. Netflix. When looking at what solution is best for you, consider the following:
The Netflix value proposition: Netflix is the granddaddy and the originator of the DVD rental / all you can watch plan. It works like this – when you sign up for Netflix you then have access to over 100,000 DVD titles. You simply find the DVD you want and put in your rental queue. You can put as many movies in your queue as you want. If your first selection is not available then they ship you the next DVD in the queue. As you return the movies you watch, Netflix simply sends you the next DVD in your queue.
Netflix has 3 different plans available. The price of the plans depend on how many movies you want to have out at the same time. The lowest cost option allows you to have one movie out at a time. The more you pay per month – the more movies you can have out at the same time.
The good news is you can watch as many or as few movies per month as you wish for the same price. So if you watch 20 movies per month, the rental price for movie is very inexpensive. On the other hand if you only watch 1 movie per month the rental price per movie can be very expensive.
Netflix is now offering streaming movies for now extra charge. This works this way. Netflix “streams” or downloads the movie to your TV to watch instantly. They include this feature at no extra charge.
Here is the big downside to streaming. The first thing you are going to need to purchase is a special DVD player that allows you to receive the Netflix stream. These DVD players do play regular DVD’s and Blu Ray DVD’s as well. But since you probably already own a DVD player it will need to be replaced with a new one with this capability.
The second thing you will need is a high speed internet connection. The higher the speed, the higher quality the viewing of the movie. If you have dial up, do not even consider streaming as it will not work. In testing a 1 meg DSL connection was barely enough. Also, depending on your internet speed, others will not be able to surf the net at the same time.
Lastly, the majority of movies are not available via streaming. It is usually a hit or miss proposition. The more profitable / popular the movie was, the less chance you will find it available for streaming.
The Blockbuster Difference:
As far as renting DVD’s via the mail. Blockbuster works almost identical. However. Blockbuster does have several advantages over Netflix.
Returning movies. As with Netflix, you can mail back the DVD’s when you are done watching them. However if you have a Blockbuster in your town you can actually return the DVD directly to the store and pick up your next DVD from them directly – avoiding any delay in watching your next movie. This is especially beneficial over the weekends since you will not get any mail on Sundays.
In the streaming area Blockbuster allows almost every movie available to be downloaded. You can also purchase movies that you download.
Any key Blockbuster benefit is that you can download their movies to a standard Tivo / DVR device. So you do not need to purchase a new DVD. You can also schedule the download of the movie. Therefore you can get by with a slower internet connection as well as avoiding any impact to other internet users in your home.
Bottom line is Blockbuster makes it much easier and convenient to rent, watch and purchase DVD’s of all types.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")